RIVERSIDE: Agencies team up on video to teach nutrition

Families try out an assortment of fruits and vegetables during an event at Longfellow Elementary School in Riverside on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. The school district taught families on how to prepare nutritious meals on a tight budget and also how to live a healthy and active lifestyle.

A new series of cooking videos shows how to prepare nutritious meals on a tight budget and is targeted at parents of low-income families.

Riverside Unified School District recorded the videos for the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services in cooperation with the county Department of Public Health, FIND Food Bank and the University of California Cooperative Extension.

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The videos star the school districtâs chef Ryan Douglas, registered dietitians from the health department and students.

Some of the student video production team volunteered part of their summer to produce the videos, which were released Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 12, at Longfellow Elementary School, where Douglas autographed cookbooks and served samples of featured recipes.

Parents at Longfellow for the videosâ premier said they think their families will enjoy the recipes in the bilingual cookbook.

âI did use one of them,â said Teresa MuÃ±oz, whose daughters go to Castle View Elementary School. She said she made the turkey skillet dinner, with ground turkey, zucchini, tomatoes and other ingredients.

âMy girls loved it very much.â

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In the videos, Douglas offers alternatives, depending on what families have at home. Cinnamon can be replaced with nutmeg, allspice or cloves in a Morning Rice recipe featuring precooked brown rice, which could be left over from the extra cooked for dinner the night before. He says oatmeal would also work in that recipe, which includes milk and a chopped apple for sweetness.

The recipes have no added sugar or salt and are low in fat, emphasizing whole grains, fruit and vegetables.

DPSS Director Susan Loew said most CalFresh, or food stamps, recipients are children in families where parents work but donât make enough money to put enough food on the table regularly. The numbers have soared since the Great Recession.

âThereâs still a lot of people in our community who are eligible for these benefits and who are not getting them,â Loew said.

Her department got two grants totaling $725,000 from the California Department of Social Services for the cooking video series.

The videos will be shown in the lobbies of county offices, Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit said.

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